


Hounds of Love

by minna_miteite_kure



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Attempt at Humor, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Heartbreak, Identity Issues, Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24822982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minna_miteite_kure/pseuds/minna_miteite_kure
Summary: College life brings an entire new world for theater arts major Kim Jiwoo, as she finds herself with roommate, Ha Sooyoung. She catches up on what she's missed after being placed on a pedestal for most of her life— and the weight of it all comes all at once.Just as she thinks she's settled in, the hounds of love are coming for her through the trees.
Relationships: Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Kim Jiwoo | Chuu, Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	1. Andromeda

**Author's Note:**

> Andromeda's a big wide open galaxy, is love calling her?

College was a fresh start for Kim Ji Woo, a BFA Theater Arts major. She’d spent weeks affirming her mom, telling her she’d be fine living on her own, but part of her also felt nervous. 

This was her first time being independent, her family nowhere to check in on her— but this was also her one, true chance at freedom.

Jiwoo was the breadwinner of her family, being the eldest child of three. She went to a performing arts high school, so unlike most asian families, her parents knew about her trajectory; to some extent they were even proud of her. The only reservation her family ever had came from her mother, a professional singer, who knew all the struggles of being a performer all too well. 

In this school however, Jiwoo wasn’t some breadwinner, she wasn’t the daughter of a singer, she wasn’t one of Hanlim Multi Arts High School’s best alumna— she was just Kim Jiwoo: a girl with brown hair, soft eyes, and a smile that could thaw any frozen heart.

“109… 109....” She repeated to herself as she pulled her luggages across the hall of Block Berry University’s dorm. “Room 109!”

She excitedly pushed the door open, but it was locked..? 

_ Is my roommate already here? Did they lock the door? Am I  _ **_NOT_ ** _ in room 109? What do I do, should I call mom? I think I’ll call mom– _

Her panicked thoughts were interrupted by the door being opened, and there stood her roommate: Ha Sooyoung.

“Oh, sorry… didn’t think you’d get here soon after I did, but I decided to do some sweeping & wiping around the room first. This place was kiiinda dusty when I first got here.” She sheepishly explained as she motioned one of Chuu’s luggages. “Let me help you with that.”

Chuu nodded as she entered, silent as she mostly sat in utter shock.  _ Dear God, is she really my roommate? Wherever you are, I’m slowly starting to consider how real you are.  _

“Don’t worry by the way, I haven’t picked a room yet. I decided to wait for you so we can decide together.” Sooyoung smiled at Chuu, who was also smiling for… different reasons.

_ Is this it? Is she gonna be my college girlfriend? Jiwoo is this our time to SHINE?! _

“What’s your name?” Sooyoung leaned into her spaced out roommate, putting her hand out, “Oh wait, I’m Ha Sooyoung, by the way. You?” 

“K-Kim Jiwoo.” She crashed back into earth to smile for real and shake the girl’s hand. “I can take any room, I guess?”

“I’m also not picky either, I could honestly go either way.”

Their dorm room was more spacious than most college students had it. It had 2 bedrooms with bathrooms in them, a common room, and another bathroom by the common room. 

“With how pretty this place is… I wouldn’t even mind sleeping on the couch.” Jiwoo replied, making Sooyoung chuckle.

“Well, I guess I’ll take the room behind the TV.” Sooyoung smiled as she grabbed her luggages that stood in front of the sofas. “I’m less sensitive to noise when I sleep, just in case you wanna stay up at night watching TV or something.”

“That’s really nice.” Jiwoo’s smile grew even more. “Thank you, Sooyoungie.” Sooyoung’s smile grew to her cheeks and her eyes, her pearly whites showing.

“I like the nickname, by the way.” She said to Jiwoo as she brought her bags in and closed the door.

Jiwoo didn’t even realize she just gave a girl she met a nickname; normally she’d be kicking herself for being so rude, but she apparently liked it!

_ This might just be the college life I’ve been waiting for,  _ She smiled for herself as she brought her luggages in, closing the door behind her. 


	2. Season 2 Episode 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jiwoo's first few weeks are busy, and on this specific weekend, she finds her hands full as her social life begins to grow out of control. Needing an escape, she calls on her friends, Jungeun and Jinsoul, but they only leave her with a lonely weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's just so happy without the noise.
> 
> << \- outgoing
> 
> >> \- incoming

University was going well for Jiwoo. She didn’t need to sit in the same class with the same people anymore. It wasn’t a bad thing, she didn’t hate them, but most people would agree that Kim Jiwoo was always just treated differently for being… well… Kim Jiwoo. 

“Jiwoo! We’re having studying at Angel-in-us later! Come and join us!” She nodded politely at her classmates, “Sorry, I’m busy tonight! Next time maybe?” A smile crept on her face as she bowed politely, their faces burning a little at the gesture.

“Hey Jiwoo, you wanna join us again next week for bad movie night?” She was friends with the film majors through her high school friends, but part of her didn’t want to go as she nodded, “Ah, I’ll see if I don’t end up busy that day!”

3 more groups invited her to their plans as she walked back to the dorm. As she closed the door, she let out a heavy-hearted sigh.

Jiwoo rarely ever actually spent time with people. Her closest friends were Kim Jungeun and Jung Jinsol, her high school seniors with Jungeun only being her senior because she skipped a grade. The two shifted courses as Jungeun went from BS Aerospace to BFA Dance and Jinsol went from BA PoliSci to BS Materials Engineering— with most of their credits being invalid, they were essentially freshmen with Jiwoo this time.

[16:23] << : Girlies! You up to anything this weekend?

[16:23] >> : Jiwoo? My friends said you were busy. What’s up?

[16:24] << : Ah, you know I can’t say no well Jungie :[ What else would I say?

[16:25] >> : idk.. just not something like “i’ll see?” dont get their hopes up jiwoo.

[16:25] >> : I agree with Jinsol, you should really learn to be more direct with people.

[16:26] >> : lippie maybe thats why she’s still single…

[16:26] << : YOU KNOW I’M STILL HERE RIGHT???? ;___;

[16:27] >> : Jinsoul as much as I agree, I also just think that’s part of being Jiwoo. (though you’re right, she’s both dense and a coward… she could have droves of girls confessing and she’d still misinterpret their confessions…)

[16:27] << : Not true!

[16:27] >> : jiwoo sweetie you had no clue jungeun liked you until AFTER i told you while we were already dating…

[16:27] >>: WHY would you bring that up???

[16:28] >> : seemed like a fitting response..? ok wtvr, we have plans this weekend so u ditching everybody can just backfire.

[16:28] << : I’m not mad at a little more time alone! I’ll just relax :D have fun on your date lovebirds :)

[16:30] >> : Thanks Jiwoo, you have fun.

The problem with Jiwoo was simply that; she was Jiwoo. Nobody ever let her in precisely because of that point. She was always the girl who everybody assumed had better things to do, better people to be with, better places to be. At some point, she just started acting like it— no reason in showing just how lonely she gets, after all. 

That seat on a pedestal also ended up teaching her how to keep to herself; she’d never truly let anybody in. Not even Jungeun and Jinsol, the both had never even seen her cry out of sadness.

Kim Jiwoo being Kim Jiwoo seemed to be its own blessing and curse— she’s broken but she’s fun. 

_ It’s just a weekend… right?  _ she thought to herself as she paced around the dorm room, leftover breakfast cereal for dinner.  _ Right? _


	3. 400 Lux

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're never done with killing time.
> 
> Can I kill it with you?

Jiwoo slouched on the couch, not really paying attention to anything. All the lights had been off, so the screen was the only thing lighting up the dark dorm room. She setup her Switch the day before, so she left a random mix of songs on autoplay.

Her eyes weren’t quite staring at the TV, as her vision fixated on the white wall. Her mind didn’t quite align with what she was seeing; she didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking at. 

3, 4 songs continued to echo through the room, Jiwoo’s leftover cereal sat in the sink, only damp from left out milk that she drank. Her mind was mostly empty.

Jiwoo learned how to black out feelings she didn’t like feeling— but that meant a lot of days were like this. Sitting in spaced out, borderline dissociated numbness. If you asked her what she was thinking about, she’d answer with a shy, “Oh, nothing!” and she wouldn’t be lying. Balls of sunshine such as Kim Jiwoo learn, to some extent, how to repress things. They live off of energy, and emotions like lethargy and melancholy only ever weigh them down.

_What is this feeling? I don’t really know how to explain it. It feels like… my heart is sinking in place. Almost as if I’m in quicksand, but for some reason my body isn’t slowly climbing its way back up. Almost as if the downwards pull feels therapeutic— natural even._

“Why’s it so dark..? Jiwoo? You here?” The sound of her roommate’s voice snapped her out of her haze, as she immediately fixed her bangs and sat upright. She then realized that that position would make it obvious that she panicked last minute, so she leaned over to the side and got on her phone, opening it to the first app she could.

“Yeah! Sorry! I just feel comfy like this.” She punctuated her reply with a giggle, realizing that she had her phone on Calculator. 

“Well, I thought you would’ve been on a night out. I mean it _is_ the weekend and you _are_ Kim Jiwoo.” Sooyoung shrugged as she sat beside Jiwoo. “What’re you scrolling through..?” she snuck a peak at Jiwoo’s screen, “Ah, calculator.”

“Yeah! I was just computing something I saw in a video!”

“Jiwoo this is a Tiny Desk Concert.”

“Yeah! I, uh… no I got nothing.” She looked away from her roommate, shyly scratching the back of her head. “I was supposed to have plans tonight, and they sort of bailed on me…”

“I could tell.” Sooyoung rested on Jiwoo’s shoulder, the girl perking up a little as her face burned up. _The lights off was a good idea. Definitely a good idea._ “You did leave a note by the door that said, ‘Sooyoung, don’t wait up, I’ll be out all night, 3 hearts, Jiwoo’”

“Oh.” She forgot to take the note down after hanging up on her friends. 

“It’s okay… I’ll spend tonight with you.” Sooyoung shook Jiwoo’s arm as she pulled out her phone. “I’ll even get us pizza for dinner. On me.”

“Sooyoungie…” she stared at her roommate with puppy dog eyes, “Thank you…”

“Ahh, Jiwoo, we’re roommates! We’re supposed to be taking care of each other. Besides, this is the closest we can get to having a family away from home.” She smiled as she placed her orders. “Pineapple or no?” Jiwoo shook her head.

“As I was saying,” Sooyoung put her phone down, “This is a good chunk of what we got right now, okay?” She held Jiwoo closer, “Now let’s put something else on.”

“Okay…” Jiwoo smiled at her roommate once more, but for some reason, this time it felt more real. Sooyoung felt the shift, and she felt her ears heat up at the sight. “But can we play the next one first? I like Mitski.” Sooyoung nodded as she rested on her side of the sofa.

30 minutes passed, and while they were playing Taiko no Tatsujin, the pizza arrived. Along with the pizza, Sooyoung ordered 2 1L soda bottles and something called a desert pizza, which the two surprisingly enjoyed.

“Tonight was great.” Jiwoo smiled at Sooyoung as she crushed the last box and placed it in the trash can.

“Yeah, we should do this more often.” Sooyoung replied, turning to Jiwoo

“Thank you.” Jiwoo immediately hugged the girl, tears in her face. “Thank you so much.”

“Jiwoo…” she ran her fingers through her roommate’s hair, “Anytime. Really. Like I said, this is home now.”

_Yeah, you sure are._ She thought to herself as she let go.

“Good night Sooyoungie!” Jiwoo happily cheered as she closed her door.

“Good night Jiwoo.” Sooyoung slowly smiled.

Jiwoo laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she slowly dozed off. As her breathing slowed and her eyelids got heavier, only one thing echoed her mind.

_I’d like it if you stayed._


End file.
